About Baseball Mastery
Baseball Mastery was born out of a quest to find good online information about how to teach baseball skills and the desire of Ben Petrick, a former major league baseball player to continue to contribute to the game he loves. It is our hope that this site helps players and coaches everywhere to improve their understanding of the game in a way that is intuitive and straight forward.
Our audience, is any player, coach or parent, who is trying to find quality baseball instruction and insight. We try to do that with instruction and insight that is presented in a way that is easy to understand and digest. Therefore, we have broken down the game into key areas and have filmed small clips that help highlight key fundamentals of the game. It is our belief that in most aspects of baseball there is no one single way to make a play. We have attempted to make efforts to explain this where it makes sense and to stick with basic fundamentals that have proven successful over time. Ultimately, we believe that the true factor to success is practice. Thus our motto has become, Watch, learn, practice and master. Time spent working hard on proper form and function will ultimtely be what provides with success, we are merely here to help you on your way. Good Luck and we hope you enjoy the site!
About Our Coaches
Ben Petrick
Ben grew up in Hillsboro, Oregon where he attended Glencoe High School. He participated in football, basketball, and baseball. In football he was a 1st Team All-State selection on both offense as a running back and on defense as a defensive back. He was also the Offensive player of the year in the state of Oregon helping the Crimson Tide win the 1994 State Championship. He passed up Pac-10 football scholarships to focus on a baseball career.
As a high school baseball player Ben was a 3 time All-State catcher from 93’ to 95’ being named the 1995 Player of the Year in the state of Oregon. He was also named to the All-America team. He finished his senior season hitting .524, 11 HR, 46 RBI’s, 22 SB in 25 games. He was named the Scholar Athlete award in the state as well as the Johnny Carpenter prep athlete of the year. Baseball America had Ben ranked as one of the top 25 high school baseball players in the country and was listed as the 2nd best catching prospect. Ben was also selected to play on the Junior Olympic team for the US.
In the 1995 MLB amateur draft Ben was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 2nd round (38th overall). He ended up signing and passing up his scholarship to attend and play baseball at Arizona State.
1996 – Asheville Tourists (low A-ball), named to both the mid-season and post-season out Atlantic league All-Star teams. Was ranked as a top five prospect in the Rockies organization. Caught the first no-hitter in Rockies franchise history.
1997 - Salem Avalanche (high A-ball), named to both the mid-season and post-season Carolina League All-Star team. Threw out 31% of would be base stealers. Stole 30 bases himself and was named the Salem Avalanche player of the year. Named in the top 10 prospects for the Rockies. Caught the second no-hitter Rockies franchise history.
1998 – New Haven Ravens (AA-ball) He was named as a top 10 prospect in the Rockies organization despite having a down year. However did hit 18 home runs battling two stints on the disable list.
1999 – Carolina Mudcats, Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Colorado Rockies. Ben had a breakout year offensively. He hit .313 with 27 HR and 98 RBI’s in 123 games…homering once every 15 at bats. He became only the second Rockies minor league player to hit for the cycle vs. Huntsville May 9th going 4-4 with three RBI’s. With the AAA Sky Sox Ben out hit every other Pacific Coast League catcher by 35 points. From August 1-20 he hit .420 (21-50 six homers, 17 rbi’s) Made his Major League debut September 1, 1999 at Coors Field vs Pittsburgh. He went 2-3 with 1 RBI and 2 BB’s. Ben also started at catcher in the first ever Futures All-Star Baseball game at Fenway Park.
2000 – Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Colorado Rockies Started in AAA but got called up in May for the rest of the MLB season. Finished the year in AAA hitting .315 in AAA and .322 in the big leagues. Once again named to and starting the Futures All star game in Atlanta.
2001 – Caught four of the seven complete games for the Rockies. Had his big league season high of 11 HR. Became the first Rockies player to homer at San Francisco’s Pac Bell Park. Hit .308 for the month of June. Recorded his first big league pinch hit which was game winner vs the Giants Sept. 7.
2002-2004 Over this two and a half year span Ben made the successful transition to the outfield. He spent time with the Rockies and the Sky Sox and was traded to the Detroit Tigers half way through the 2003 season. He signed back with the Tigers in the spring of 2004 but was released in April. Ben signed a AAA contract with the Portland Beavers and played with them for a month before retiring in May of 04’. He revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2000 and had been playing with it for the past four seasons. The combination of the disease the drugs needed to function and the prospect of life after baseball drove him to make the difficult but right decision to move on.
With the aid of medication Ben can now be found helping out and coaching both football and baseball at Glencoe High School. He teaches private hitting and catching lessons as well as being the head instructor at www.baseballmastery.com. He is married and has a 14 month old daughter.
Ben’s career stats can be found here: Ben's Stats
Information on Parkinson’s Disease can be found here:www.michaeljfox.org
Marcus Glaze
Coach Glaze is a 1995 graduate of Glencoe high school where he participated in football, basketball, and baseball. He was a three time All-League selection in baseball (2nd Team sophomore/junior year, 1st Team senior year). As a senior, he was named All-League Honorable Mention in basketball and was a participant of the Metro League champion baseball team while being named league pitcher of the year and 2nd team All-State. He also participated in the annual State/Metro series before receiving a full scholarship to go pitch for Steve Farrington at Washington State University. Glaze spent part of his sophomore year as the team’s closer and finished the season 4th in the Pac 10 North in appearances. Glaze played two seasons before suffering a career-ending arm injury.
Coach Glaze is going into his sixth year of coaching high school baseball and this will be his third year as Glencoe's varsity pitching coach. He is happily married to his wife Stacey and they have one daughter, Allison.